Early October, me and Gary went to Gooseberry Mesa which was my first camping
this year. The nose survived surprisingly well, so, I decided to use up the
good weather and come back the following weekend. The main destination was
exploration of Little Creek Mountain, a sandstone mesa south of Gooseberry.
I left SLC early Sat. morning and around 2pm go to the western edge of
Little Creek Mountain, where I found a nice campspot with a superb view.
I jumped on the bike and till 6pm rode the trails on the mesa, which are about
50% slickrock (sometime with complicated orientation) and 50% twisty singletrack
in a juniper forest. In the evening I played with my camera during the sunset
and then watched a movie on the notebook. A day well spent!.
I spent Sun. morning exploring some more of Little Creek Mountain, mainly so
that I put the trail more in the memory and would not get lost there so much
next time. After lunch I moved about 300 m. lower and rode JEM trail that starts
at the western flank of Gooseberry Mesa and leads down to the Virgin river
gorge. Then I followed newly (2002) build Hurricane Rim Trail almost to the
town of Hurricane. Here I jumped on Hwy 59 and rode the road back to my car.
Then I moved another 15 miles or so to a BLM camp in Red Cliffs Desert Reserve,
where I spent another pleasantly warm night.
On Monday I first noticed, that my bike's rear shock is too soft, I think I
blew the rebound dampening part on the fast JEM downhill. But, it was still
rideable, so, I rode from the campground south about 10 km on the Prospector
Trail to another slickrock area, Church Rocks, where is a short (2 km) loop
and then returned back on Prospector to the camp. Around 2pm I set for the
drive home, and I just managed to get to SLC and see the smog above the
valley. The thought that it was a good idea to get out of this mess for three
days concluded a weekend well spent.
Here is topo mapa (280 kB) and here trail access map. (170 kB).
Also available is an aerial view
of the trail on the mesa that I took from the Terraserver website. The white
patches is slickrock, black dots juniper trees, red is the trail (approx.).
More info on my mountainbiking page.
Two of the first slickrock plateaus on the big loop clockwise.
The trail as it winds along the west rim.
Intersection of the small and big loop, note the large cairn.
Panorama north of the vast slickrock area that leads to The Point.
The big loop as it drops into the slickrock canyon and travels through it.
The trail as it exits the canyon on a slickrock plateau, where I got lost the first day and could not find the way into the canyon from the other side.
Here is a partial map of the loop (300 kB).
Start of the upper J.E.M. Trail with a new sign.
Panoráma J-V from poblíž rozcestí JEM a Hurricane Rim.
Pohled ze stejného místa k severu.
Virgin River gorge as the Rim trail hits it.
Eastern Hurricane Rim traihead looking west.
Eastern Hurricane Rim traihead looking SE, with a nice rock table.
View down into the Virgin River gorge.
A look west on the Hurricane river brige from the rim.
The Rim Trail climbing up towards the Hwy 59 trailhead.
Panorama W-N from a "Panorama Point" about a mile from the Hwy 59 trailhead.
Here is map of the area icopied from a trailhead board.
Prospector Trail trailhead on the access road to the BLM campsite at the north end of the Desert Reserve.
A pipe under I-15 that serves as an access to Church Rocks - probably the most exciting part of the ride around Church Rocks.
Pnorama SE from the southern part of Church Rocks area.
Panorama NE with a view on the Church Rocks.
Prospector Trail as it exits one of the washes. Note cool rocks on the trail sides.
View north about a mile from the Prospector Trailhead. Note chola cactus on the
left of the trail.U of U / CHPC / Cuma / Travel / Czech / Little Creek Mountain
